The Soapsuds Group at the Living Posters Ball, 1930

A collection of Cecil Beaton’s early work, held in a private American collection for more than 60 years, is going back on show in the UK – and gives an insight into rarefied world of prewar glamour. An exhibition,
Cecil Beaton, is at Beetles+Huxley, London, to 20 May. All images: Cecil Beaton

Nancy Beaton as a Shooting Star for the Galaxy Ball, 1929

Johnny Weissmuller on the set of Tarzan, Hollywood, 1932

Other famous names didn’t fare so well in his diaries. Marlene Dietrich was ‘a sort of mechanical doll … with a genius for believing in her self-fabricated beauty’, while Katharine Hepburn was ‘the egomaniac of all time ... a raddled, rash-ridden, freckled, burnt, mottled, bleached and wizened piece of decaying matter’

Loretta Young, New York, 1938

He had relationships with both men and women, be they Adele Astaire (sister of Fred), Greta Garbo, or Olympic fencer Kinmont Hoitsma. He lusted after art patron Peter Watson, though their intimate friendship was never consummated

Rest Centre, London, 1940

His photos of
the blitz in London proved tremendously affecting – one of a little girl clutching a teddy bear ended up on the cover of Time magazine, and arguably bolstered the case for the US to enter the war